Carter 1

JonSavannah Carter
Research Paper
13 December 2016
Barren Brazil?
For many years now, deforestation has increased at an alarmingly rapid rate in Brazil.
Annually, roughly 20,000 square kilometers of trees are lost to deforestation in Brazil. Despite the
vast variety of benefits that the rainforests provide, such as foods and other useful products,
widely unsustainable practices of clearing forestland for other uses are continuing to take place.
Brazil's deteriorating environment is undergoing large-scale alteration and destruction, which can
be accredited to growing economical and agricultural demands, compounded by inadequate
governmental supervision.
The potential for an economy based on forest resources is immense. Brazilian
participation in world trade is exceptionally lucrative, especially their forest sector. In a fervent
attempt to maximize their positive trade balance, which reached a record low of
-4058.14 USD million in January of 2014 and an all-time high of 6436.65 USD million in May of
2016, existing remunerative trades such as cattle ranching and raw sugar agriculture, which are
also common drivers of deforestation, have been expanded throughout Brazil (Brazilian
Balance). According to the environmental group Greenpeace, these factors are likely to be
compounded by the land speculation, immigration, and higher costs of goods and services, in the
Tapajos basin (qtd in Deforestation: Facing). Brazil's rush for increased economic
profitability has led to the blatant disregard for the effects of deforestation, which have
already begun to manifest themselves. When it comes to soybean exporting, Brazil is the second
largest exporter in the world and groceries nearly 23.6 billion dollars in the trade. Commodities
account for nearly 50% of Brazil's total sales (Brazilian Balance). These extremely profitable
trades put more pressure on Brazil to clear land and expand their exporting businesses.
Deforestation is often said to be the direct result of overt efforts by rural and industrial agro-

Carter 2
industry lobbies to try to weaken Brazilian forest code (Nikolau). Enervated forest codes and
restrictions upshot increased deforestation levels because businesses will clear the land and use it
for developing communities to exceed economic demands and create a higher profit margin.
Unfortunately, the gross economic benefits of clearing the Amazon tends to overshadow Brazil's
dire need for a healthy and abundant ecosystem.
The booming agricultural industry in Brazil, while proven to be grossly beneficial to their
economy, is responsible for over 25% of deforestation in Brazil (Bulter). More competitive prices
for export commodities create incentives for illegal logging and clearing land. Bill Laurance
stated that, beef, timber, soy and other products have suddenly become more competitive (qtd
in (Brazils Rising Deforestation) A rising proportion of deforestation can be directly related
to large-scale agriculture. Since commodities such as beef, soy, sugar, and palm oil are needed
worldwide, the demand for them is continuously rising. In order to meet these agricultural
demands more land is cleared, trees and other plants are yanked out of the earth, natural
geological features such as hills are flattened, and animals are forced out of the area. As the
demand for agricultural goods continues to increase Brazilian farmers respond by clearing the
original wildlife and replacing it with crops and cattle, creating a seemingly immutable cycle, but
one commonly overlooked question seems to remain unanswered. What will happen when there
is no more land to clear?
Brazils Amazon rainforest is the epicenter of the world's hydropower plants. Gushing
rains have made it a prime destination for developers searching for an exemplary location to erect
new hydropower projects, a form of energy generated by the conversion of free-falling water to
electricity. These allegedly renewable energy sources are giving rise to the fragmentation of
Brazil's environment. By promoting deforestation these projects pose a dangerous threat to the
environment. An article called Deforestation: Facing Facts, explores the environmental
impacts of emerging hydropower projects. Greenpeace states that hydropower projects increase
deforestation, not just on the site of the dam and its reservoir, but also as a result of the

Carter 3
construction of new access roads, the migration of workers to the site and the infrastructure
needed to accommodate them (qtd in Deforestation: Facing). Brazil's environment is
simply unequipped to deal with the burden that the rapid construction of hydropower plants will
put on their infrastructure. Between 2014-2030, hydropower projects and their associated
infrastructure have been projected to increase deforestation by over 40% in the municipalities of
the Tapajos basin (Deforestation: Facing). These projects will bring about the degradation
and deforestation of Brazil's environment.
Vast amounts of money can be made from cutting down virgin timber and starting farms,
which makes it difficult for a government to stop deforestation. In terms of ending deforestation,
the Brazilian government is fighting an uphill battle-- internally as well as externally. There is
continued pressure within Brazils government to relax forest legislation. Many people have
chosen to develop the Amazon rainforest in Brazil because of increased government incentives in
the form of loans and infrastructure spending, which includes roads and dams (Butler). By
providing these incentives, the government is in turn promoting the desecration of Brazil's
environment. The widening gap between forest and activities and lawful oversight is allowing
harmful forest clearing methods to continue.
For years now, one enormous issue caused by deforestation is the drastic reduction of
rainfall in the Amazon rainforest. Dominik Spraklen, an atmospheric scientist, writes that the
exchange of water, energy, and gasses between Earth's surface and the atmosphere is widely
mediated by forests (qtd in Deforestation: Facing). Local temperature, humidity, and rainfall
can be affected by the clearing of forests. Studies have been conducted by Luis Garcia- Carreras,
a research fellow at the University of Leeds Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science and a
co-author of the new study, to observe the severity of the correlation between rainfall and
deforestation. Luis states that, we found a picture that increasing deforestation drove larger
reductions in rainfall (Deforestation: Facing). Forests play a key role in the environment
because they have the ability to recycle water back into the atmosphere via evapotranspiration.

Carter 4
Over recent years, mounting evidence has indicated that altering seasonal rainfall patterns and
decreasing discharge is a consequence of the rapid spatial expansion of deforestation.
Additionally, in the article About 9,000 sq km of Brazilian Amazon lost to deforestation;
government unaware, research has been conducted to asses the changes in the environment,
studies have linked deforestation to drought as the cutting of trees affects the ability of forests to
absorb carbon from the air and to pull enough water from Earth through tree roots to moisture the
air. Essentially, impacts of Amazon deforestation reach from reducing rainfall, altering the
Region's climate, and disrupting rainforest ecosystems.
During the past two decades, the practices used to clear the land of wildlife and create
deforested lands, such as clear-cutting and slash and burn agriculture, have also resulted in major
land degradation. Brazil's environment is suffering from severe land degradation; Brazilians have
created a highly destructive path that would lead them to a barren environment. The roots of trees
and plants are used to hold soil in place. As these trees are ripped from their habitat through
logging, the loss of vegetation cover allows the process of soil erosion to take place; soil erosion
involves three distinct actions-- soil detachment, movement and deposition. As the topsoil, the
most fertile and organically rich layer of soil, is relocated by the force of rushing water, ferocious
winds, and anthropogenic factors, the soil eventually loses the productivity and fertility needed to
successfully support an ecosystem. Furthermore, other effects of land degradation have been
reported, land degradation is making the Amazon rainforest more flammable with 19,379 cases
of fire reported in 2015 alone (About 9,000). The implications of land degradation extend
beyond the removal of topsoil and reach to the potential collapse of Brazilian ecosystems due to
the effects of nutrient deficiencies, desalination and desertification, which are all consequences of
deforestation.
Imagine Brazils ecosystem, economy, and agricultural sector as a large wooden Jenga
tower with three main layers. The first and most important layer, the foundation, is made up of
blocks to symbolize Brazils ecosystem. The second layer of blocks represents Brazil's

Carter 5
agricultural sector and the third layer contains the blocks that illustrate Brazil's economy. The
second and third levels of the structure depend on the foundation of the tower to maintain the
stability of the entire structure. As demands for a higher positive trade balance in the economy
increase, they act as termites, weakening the foundation of by chewing away vital ecosystem
blocks. The agricultural demands to create higher crop yields by clearing more land to plant
soybean crops set many of the ecosystem blocks ablaze, burning away essential blocks needed to
support the tower, further compromising the structure. Finally, weakened governmental
legislation and environmentally damaging projects such as hydropower plants function as
woodpeckers, pecking away at the remaining critical pieces of the ecosystem layer, leaving it in
shambles. Inevitably, the burden of singlehandedly supporting the economic and agricultural
sectors, which caused the destruction and downgrading of the foundational ecosystem layer, the
tower collapses, bringing down Brazil's economic and agricultural sectors along with its once
abundant environment.
Shortsighted studies of hydropower projects have suggested that the loss of trees in the
Amazon basin is beneficial because it increases the energy generating capacity of the dam, since
fewer trees will be available to siphon water from the ground and divert it from the watershed
used to power the hydropower plant. What the developers fail to see is that the declining amount
of trees varies inversely with the amount of water produced to power their projects. Some may
argue that Brazil contains one of the highest forest areas of any other countries (Kirk). This
ignores the fact that Brazil has also lost the largest amount of trees. People must face the reality
that deforestation is not and will not be the source of long-term benefits for Brazil.
Despite the seemingly insurmountable evidence of opposition to decreasing deforestation,
the war being waged in Brazil against deforestation is far from over. Due to mounting public
awareness of the economical and agriculturally hungry businesses, the Brazilian government
must begin to view the reality of deforestation and its brutal effects in a more serious light.
Continuing efforts to fight deforestation on all fronts include international and domestic consumer

Carter 6
support of the enforcement of legal requirements by only purchasing legally obtained timber and
a combination of private and public funding to raise the enforcement levels of Illegal clearing in
Brazil (Biderman and Nogueron). The time has come for Brazil to adopt legislation along with
economical and agricultural outlooks that promote the conservation of its environment to prevent
a barren Brazil.

Carter 7
Works Cited
"About 9,000 sq km of Brazilian Amazon lost to deforestation; government unaware." Down To Earth,
14 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.

Biderman, Rachel, and Ruth Nogueron. "Brazilian Government Announces 29 Percent Rise in
Deforestation in 2016." Brazilian Government Announces 29 Percent Rise in Deforestation in
2016 World Resources Institute. N.p., 09 Dec. 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

"Brazil Balance of Trade 1959-2016 Data Chart Calendar Forecast." Brazil Balance of Trade 19592016 Data Chart Calendar Forecast. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

Butler, Rhett. "Amazon Destruction." Mongabay.com. N.p., 23 Jan. 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

Deforestation: facing facts." International Water Power & Dam Construction, May 2016, p. 42+.
General OneFile, Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.

Kirk, Ashley. "Deforestation: Where Is the World Losing the Most Trees?" The Telegraph. Telegraph
Media Group, 23 Mar. 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

Nikolau, Lisa. "Brazil's Rising Deforestation Rate Shows Reversal of Environmental Progress Humanosphere." Humanosphere. N.p., 07 July 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.